By Akhilesh Pillalamarri
Can Russia serve as the bridge between China and India?
India and Russia have long been close allies. During the Cold War, India was generally close to the Soviet Union, despite its official stance of non-alignment. In the past decade, India has moved closer to the United States, but this has not come at the expense of its relations with Russia. There are, ultimately, numerous limiting factors in the Indian relationship with the United States, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ideological distance from the West and U.S. President Barrack Obama’s relative indifference towards maintaining a close relationship with India. On the other hand, both Russia and India have stood by each other at difficult moments.
As such, India still considers Russia a more consistent and dependent partner. India has backed Russia on a variety of issues that the United States has opposed, including supporting Russia’s interests in Ukraine. India, along with the other BRICS nations, showed remarkable bonhomie and camaraderie with Russia on this issue. Close ties between the two countries were also evidenced during the recent BRICS summit in Brazil. At the summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted that “if you ask anyone among the more than one billion people living in India who is our country’s greatest friend, every person, every child knows that it is Russia.”
India’s continued ties with Russia and support of Russian positions in the international arena demonstrate that India’s world view and goals are often very different from the West’s. Despite being a liberal democracy, India’s narrative often does not fully buy into the current liberal world order due to native currents in Indian thinking and a post-colonial wariness of the West. India’s positions at international forums are often closer to the major powers that are essentially opposed to the liberal world order led by the United States– including Russia, China, and sometimes Iran.
Read the full story at The Diplomat